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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Jack Abramoff: Now Flipping Pizzas Instead of Votes

Shamed and prosecuted former uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff is working with a new kind of dough these days.

That's right, instead of rolling out questionable gifts and incentives to lawmakers, Abramoff is now involved in business scheme even more yeasty than his congressional dealings: a kosher pizza joint.

Abramoff was sentenced to six years in prison in 2006 for his illegal dealings, and after serving three-and-a-half of those years, has been allowed to move into a halfway house in Baltimore. The halfway house found him a job at Tov Pizza, a suburban Baltimore dive serving up kosher pizza and Middle Eastern fare.

Owner Ron Rosenbluth told ABC News that Abramoff will mostly handle the books and help revitalize Tov's business plan.

"He's going over the ins and outs of our business," Rosenbluth told ABC News. "He has had experience in the food business," Rosenbluth said. "He's only been here for three days, so hopefully in this case he will understand it and fill me in on the things that I'm missing as far as marketing because I can market okay, I've been here for 26 years, I have a name, but it could always get better."

For what it's worth, Yelp commenters granted Tov three and a half stars, calling it "great pizza, but not perfect." As Rosenbluth mentioned, this isn't Abramoff's first foray into the restaurant business. In his lobbyist days, he doubled as a restauranteur -- business dealings at his restaurant, Signatures, was one of the nails the coffin of Ambramoff's conviction. Receipts showed that Abramoff comped thousands of dollars of food and drink to influential "Friends of the Owner" -- including Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt.